Russia by river

Two wire-sculptured fishermen's gift to Petrozavodsk from sister city Duluth, Minn.

Milton J. Nieuwsma, Chicago Tribune

Milton J. Nieuwsma, Chicago Tribune

Milton J. Nieuwsma, Special to Tribune Newspapers

SVIRSTROY, Russia — On the bank of the Svir River, about 160 miles northeast of St. Petersburg, lies a remote village that symbolizes this vast nation's struggle to reinvent itself after communism.

An 8-year-old named Peter, maybe after the great Russian czar who made this river navigable from the outside world, greeted passengers from the MS Rossia with bicycle tricks, a kitten clinging to his shoulder.

When he finished his routine, he held out a crocheted egg warmer to his audience of bystanders. "You buy?" he said in broken English. "My mother make it."

"How much?" I asked.

"A hundred rubles," Peter replied.

Forgetting to bargain, I paid the boy his asking price: a little more than $3. The transaction drew stares from adult vendors hawking goods of their own.

"This ship and its sister, the MS Tikhi Don, support the economy of this town," said Jenia Beralinova, our tour director with Grand Circle Travel. "There aren't many jobs here, so they need all the help they can get."

Every other week between May and October, the two ships pass each other on the Russian waterways, a 1,143-mile stretch between St. Petersburg and Moscow, making Svirstroy their first or last port of call, depending on which direction they're going. The route covers four rivers, three lakes (including the two largest in Europe, Ladoga and Onega), two canals, a reservoir and 16 locks.

It's a different view than you would get on a deep-water cruise that stops in St. Petersburg. Besides Russia's two major cities, the cruise includes stopovers in Petrozavodsk, a city on Lake Onega; a visit to a 14th-century monastery in Goritsy; and a walking tour of the ancient town of Uglich.

It also takes in what may be the most isolated UNESCO World Heritage site in the world, the centuries-old wood-domed Church of the Transfiguration on Kizhi Island, 300 miles from the Arctic Circle. Off-season, the island's 20 residents depend on weekly helicopter drops for provisions.

Petrozavodsk (population 260,000), on Lake Onega's western shore, appears frozen in a Soviet time warp. A statue of Lenin presides over the town square. A rusted-out trolley stops to pick up passengers. On the lakefront, two wire-sculptured fishermen cast their nets toward the water, a gift from a sister city, Duluth, Minn.

It's a nice touch. But when it comes to economic help, there's only so much a sister can do.

"Unemployment here is 30 percent," complained Andrei Rysakov, an English teacher. "All the young people go to Moscow or St. Petersburg because that's where the jobs are. In the rural areas, unemployment is more like 60 percent."

Which brings us back to Svirstroy. With 600 inhabitants, the town is a shadow of what it used to be. Abandoned buildings dot the landscape. A tiny Russian Orthodox church, with room for about 10 worshipers, stands a few hundred feet from the riverbank.

Jenia, our tour director, led a group from the MS Rossia to a modest frame house next to a garden patch. At the front door she introduced us to Elena, a 60-something who invited us in for tea and stuffed pastries called piroshki, a specialty of the region.

I studied Elena's face as she poured the tea from her samovar, a Russian contraption that seemed a bit complicated for the task. Though wearing a smile, she talked about better times.

"I lost my life savings when everything in Russia changed," she said, Jenia interpreting for her. "My government pension is 6,000 rubles a month ($198), so I live here with my daughter and her husband to keep expenses down."

Jenia added that Elena, like other pensioners in Svirstroy, was "paid by the company" for entertaining her American visitors.

Later, I asked Jenia what Elena meant when she said "everything in Russia changed."

She explained that former President Boris Yeltsin devalued the ruble, forcing many banks to close. "It wiped out millions of people's savings," she said.

Some change has been welcome, however. Twenty-eight-year-old Evgeny Zalman, a St. Petersburg tour guide, sees more freedom of expression for his generation. "My generation values freedom of speech above everything else," he said. "But I'm careful what I say in public."

His 80-year-old grandmother had this view of the new normal: "Life is more stable now. I wake up in the same country I went to sleep in," meaning Russia remains Russia, as opposed to when the Soviet Union dissolved.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the onetime "capitalist menace" was alive and well, as I watched hordes of customers line up at a new McDonald's near the Kremlin.

And the next time I go back — who knows? — maybe I will see my friend Peter, the young entrepreneur from Svirstroy, hawking a Mercedes on TV.

If you go

Traveling in Russia is easier than in Soviet times. Still, if you're a first-timer, think twice before going it on your own. For one thing, English is not broadly spoken, and you'll have to master the Cyrillic alphabet to translate even English words into English.

Don't expect monster ships. The MS Rossia and the MS Tikhi Don are 410 feet long, 55 feet wide and contain 110 two-passenger cabins on three decks. The boats are powered by three 1,000-horsepower diesel engines.

We slept aboard all 14 nights. The rooms were small (130 to 150 square feet) but comfortable. Each had a private bath and an exterior window, no balcony, plus a small TV with access to CNN and other English-speaking stations. All meals aboard were provided, including two glasses of wine per person with dinner. Other drinks were extra. I thought the food was excellent, but I did hear a few food-snob complaints.

On board activities included two lectures on Russian history by our tour guides and two piano concerts (one featuring all Russian composers) by a young man named Dmitry Krivonosov, who was brilliant. There was a small library with two computers and Internet access.

Another word of advice to Russian travelers: Call to be sure your bank allows ATM access. Some American banks routinely block ATM access in Russia. This was a problem for us the first few days until we were able to get a cash advance on a credit card.

Three American companies offer package deals for 12- to 14-day river cruises between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Typically, the season runs from May to October. Prices start at $2,995 per person double occupancy, excluding airfare. We cruised St. Petersburg to Moscow and took a train back to St. Petersburg for our return flight.